Railway-crossing.



S. BALKWILL.

RAILWAY CROSSING.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 23. 1914.

Patented July 17, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

AZCXWMI I Own? Patented July 17, 1917.

S BALKWILL RAILWAY CROSSING.

RAILWAY-CROSSING.

Y To all whom it may concern.

, spiked to the ties,

Be it known that I, STEPHEN BALKWILL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of'Ohio, haveinvented a certam new and useful Improvement in Railway- Crossings, of which the following is a in 1, clear, and exact description.

As a substitute for the old style railway,

crossings which were made up of short sections of rolled rail, properly arranged-and used a crossing which is made of cast manganese steel formed with intersectrngparah lel pairs of grooves or flangeways in its top 7 surface adapted .to receive the wheel flanges,

and located adjacent to the surfaces on whlch the wheels roll.

It has been found however that, in use, these cast crossings are liable to break, the line of fracture being, .in part at least, through the thin. walls which form the bottoms of the flangeways.

The object of this invention is. to provide a railway crossing built up of cast sections which are so constructed, arranged and eonnected, that the resulting structure will have all of. the desirable qualities of the previously known cast steel crossings, but will be less liable to breakage, and which, if

breakage occurs, may be easily and quickly flangeways formed partly repaired at comparatively little expense. The invention involves as one fundamental characteristic, the employment of the crossing of members having the necessary y one of said members and partly by the other, and in connectin the members together by horizontal bo ts. This feature of construction imparts to the crossin flexible qualities such as will permit a su cient yielding 0f the weight-supporting member on one side of the flangeway relative to the member which does not support weight on the other side of the flangeway, so that these two members are not likely to be broken apart. Another desirable feature lies in the construction of said two connected members which together form the flangeways with interlocking edges so arranged that they will relieve the connecting bolts of ome of the strains incident to the passage of a car or train over the crossing.

This invention consists in the construction of a combination of parts shown in the drawing, and hereinafter described and Specification of Letters Patent.

pointed out there is now being much 7 atented Jul it, rare.

- Application filed November 28 me. Serial No. 873,452.

definitelv in the appended claims.

In the drawing Figure 1 is a plan view of a rallway crossmg embodying the invention in the best form known to me; Fig. 2 i a plan view of one of the so-called side members thereof; Fig. 3 is a plan view of one of the corner members thereof; Fig. 4 is a vertical section on line H of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a vertical section on line 55 of Fig. 1; Fig. 6 is a vertical section on line 6+6 of Fig. l.

Referring to the. parts by reference char acters, 10 represents one of the side members. -There are four of these; and in a right angle crossing they may be exactly alike, and, therefore, interchangeable.

12 represents a corner member. There are members 12 are then each with its two arms 12 tit respectively parallel and in contact with the adjacent arms 10 of two side members.

The contacting edge of each arm 10 is formed with a groove 10. ing edge of an arm 12" tongue 12 which fits the groove 10.

'The portion 10 of each member 10 is what I term a tread portion, in that it is adapted to have the periphery of the car wheel roll along it. i j

Similarly, the top surfaces upon the angular'corner pieces 12 are formed as tread portions. Therefore, when the members 10 and a corner piece 12 are laid to form a crossing, the tread portions of the pieces 10 form continuations of the tread portions of the pieces 12.

In the top surface ofeach tongue-carrying arm12","and close to and parallel with its tongue-carrying edge, a one-sided groove or flangeway 152. is formed. When any two arms-10 12 are assembled, as shown, the

Each contactis formed with a arm 10" will form one side of the said groove or flangeway. These arms 10 12 are connected together by horizontal bolts 14 which preferably go through bosses 12 on the un der side of the arms 12".

The angularly extending arms 10 of the pieces 10 are formed so as to have the function of guard flanges, and these arms cooperate with the arms of the pieces 12 to form a. flange-way for a flanged car wheel. In the top surface of the intermediate bars 10 the grooves or flangeways 10 are formed so as to be alined with and to form the connection link between two alined flangeways 12.

In the inner edges of the intermediate bars 10" the grooves 10 are formed. These receive the arms of. angle bars 15 which fit them. Bolts 16 passing through these angle bars and the ad acent intermediate bars securely fasten the members lotogether.

The members 10 and 12 are formed with I foot flanges 10 12 to enable them to rest squarely upon, and to be secured to the supporting railway ties.

The preferable manner in which these crossings may be properly arranged with respect to the track is shown in the drawing. The outer partsof the arms 12* are recessed along their inner edges and so shaped that the rolled track rail sections 17 Will fit the recess with their top surfaces in alinement with those top surfaces 12 of the arms 12 which are just outside of the grooves 12 The inner edge of each arm 12 is formed to fit against the sideof the rail 17 between the ball 17* and the foot flange 17 thereof. A

filler piece 18 is fitted between said track rail 17 and the arm 10"; and these four parts are then connected by horizontal bolts 19. 7 For convenience particularly the claims I have referred to those portions. of the crossing with which the tracks cooperate as the a proaches of the crossing.

Tee nically, of course, sometimes a car i may approach or leave by the parts which I term approaches, and I do not intend to limit myself by the use of the term. However, it is believed that the portion referred to will be well understood in the use of the term. a

As shown, and above described, the crosing is a right angle crossing. It may, however, be adapted to be used intermediately of track rails which cross each other at some other angle, by merely constructing the members 10 with their arms 10 at the desired angle to the intermediate bars 10',

and by forming the corner members 10 with their arms 10 in the proper angular relation to each other.

There will be such a degree of flexibility between any two connected members that when cars are being run over the crossing,

and the weight of such cars is being supported by one only of said two members, they may yield slightly, wherefore breakage is not likely to occur. But, if the breaking does occur, the crossing may be repaired by removing the broken part and substituting a new part therefor.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. In a railway crossing, the combination of members, each having an arm with a tread portion and an arm element formed as a guard, and other members forming a corner only having elements each of which forms a tread,portion, each arm element before mentioned engaging with an element forming a tread portion above the base of said member, thereby to form a wheel flangeway.

2.. In a railway crossing, the combination of members, each having an arm with a tread portion and an arm formed as a guard, and other members forming corners only, each having tread portions, which engage with and are secured to the arms formed as guards of the first mentioned members to form intersecting flange-ways.

3. A railway crossing, comprising two members, each having angularly extending arms, one arm of each member having a tread portion, the, other arm of each member formed as a guard, and a third integral member forming a corner only having angularly extending arms, each of which arms is formed with a tread portion that engages with and is securedto the arms formed as guards of the first mentioned members to form flange-ways.

4. A railway crossing, comprising members, each having an arm with a tread portion, and an arm formed as a guard, and a distinct member having a corner portion formed integral, and portions extending therefrom which form tread portions that engage with and are secured to the arms formed as guards upon the first mentioned members to form flange-ways.

5. In a railway crossing, the combination of a plurality of members which when assembled have intersecting grooves formed in their top surfaces, each approach of the crossing comprising oppositely disposed parts having a groove formed in and bying above the bottom of the member engaged, whereby the engaging member is supported in part by the engaged member and in part independently supported whereby the parts have a certainamount of flexibility -of two members, each having a flangeway formed therein, there being angular extensions upon said members, each of said angular extensions having a artially formed flangeway therein, an an ar member having arms, which arms cooperate with adjacent extensions and form a completed flangeway.

9. A railway crossing, comprising four side members, each consisting of two arms which are parallel with each other and extend in the same direction and an intermediate connection with the two arms in which connection a flangeway is formed and four corner members, each having two arms in which arms a partial flangeway is formed, the said members being arranged and connected in such position that the two arms of a corner.

member engage with arms on each of two adjacent side members, there being formed in the surface of the structure so produced two pairs of parallel intersecting flangeways.

.10. A railway crossing comprising four side members, each consisting of two arms which are parallel with each other and extend in the same direction, and an interme: diate bar which is integrally connected at its ends with said two arms, and four corner members each having 'two integral arms,said members being arranged, and connected together, in position such that the two arms of each corner member contact respectively with an armon each of two adjacent side members,and there being in the surface of the structure so produced two pairs of parallel intersecting fiangeways.

11. A railway crossing comprising four side members, each consisting of two arms which are parallel with each other and extend in the same direction, and an intermediate bar which is integrally connected at its ends with said two members and which likewise has its ends mitered,-the mitered ends of said four intermediate bars being placed in contact,-angle bars each engaging and connected with the under edges of two adjacent intermediate bars,-and four corner members each having two integral arms which are arranged outside'of and in parallel contacting relation to the arms of two side members, said contacting arms being all connected together,-and there be--- ing in the surface of the structure so produced two parallel pairs of intersecting flangeways.

12. A railway crossing comprising four side members, each consisting of two arms which are parallel with each other andextend in the same direction, and an intermediate bar'which is integrally connected at its ends-with said two members and which likewise has its ends mitered,--the mitered ends of said four intermediate bars being placed in contact,-angle bars each engaging and connected with the inner edges of two adjacent intermediate bars, and four corner members each having two integral arms which are arranged outside of and in parallel contacting relation to the arms of two side members, said contacting arms being all connected together, -and there being in the I surface of the structure so produced two parallel pairs of intersecting fiangeways, part of said flangeways being formed with one side only and in the arms of the corner members adjacent to the edges thereof,

' whereby the adjacent arms of the side-members form one side of the flangeways.

13. A railway crossing having cornermembers formed with sep'arably and yieldingly jointed sections having guard-rail sections formed thereon, the joints intersecting I the wheel-flange grooves in said members.

14. A railway-crossing having its cornermembers formed of jointed sections withguard-rail sections formed thereon and extending therefrom, the joints of said sections intersecting the wheel-flange grooves in said members. and being yielding, and cornerpieces in the angles between adjacent guard- V rail sections.

15. A railway-crossing havin members formed of jointed sectlons with guard-rail sections formed thereon and extending therefrom, the joints of said sections intersecting the wheel-flange grooves in said members and being yielding, and corner-pieces in theangles formed by adjacent guard-rail sections, the opposing guard-rail sections and corner pieces forming co g means for the end-portions of track-rails between them. 7

16. A railway-crossing having comermembers formed of obliquely-jointed sections, the joints intersecting the wheel-flange grooves in said members, guardetrail sections on said jointed sections, and corner-pieces in and fitting the angles formed by adjacent guard-rail sections, the opposing guard-rail sections and sides of the corner-pieces corresponding in length and forming confiningmeans for the end-portions of track-rails between them.

" one-piece cast rail-sections having oblique one-piece cast rail-sections having oblique .ends meeting in the corner-members of the crossing to form yielding joints intersecting the wheel-flange grooves in said members.

\ 18. A railway-crossing comprising straight i I 20. In a railway crossing the combination of members each having an arm with a tread portion and an arm element formed as a guard, and other members forming a corner having elements each of which forma tread portion, each arm element before mentioned engaging with an element forming a tread portion above the base of said member thereby to form a wheel flangeway, one of the engaging elements being formed with a depres, sion above the base thereof, and the other being formed with a projection which cooperates with the base.

21. A railway crossing comprising members each having an arm with a tread portion and an arm formed as a guard, and a distinct member having a corner portion formed integral and portions extending therefrom which form tread portions thatengage with and are secured to the arms formed as guards upon the first mentioned member to form flangeways, the said engaging tread portions and arm portions having the one a depression and the other a projection which engagesin the depression, the parts being secured together whereby there is secured a limited flexibility between the parts.

22. A railway crossing having ap roach portions, an'approach portion being ormed in two parts, said parts cooperating to form a wheel flange groove, the said parts engagingalong a surface of contact at which the parts are secured together, one of said parts being formed with a projection above the base thereof, the other of said parts being formed with a depression above the base thereof, the projection engaging in the depression whereby the engaging member'is supported in part by the engaged member and in part independently s PPQI'ted, thereby ermitting a limited amount of flexibility in t e connection.

In testimony whereof, Ihereunto afiix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

STEPHEN BALKWILL.

Witnesses:

L. I. PORTER, A. J. HUDSON. 

